What happened matters more than what might have happened. As it was, instead of waiting for the surrender and evacuation of Fort Sumter due to lack of supplies on April 15 as promised by its Union commander, the Confederates fired on it on April 12 and began the Civil War. If the Confederates had waited for the Union Navy to arrive in force, the battle might also have included exchanges of fire between Confederate land artillery and Union vessels attempting to supply Fort Sumter. Yet, by Confederate choice, that is not what happened. They fired first.
What I hear you saying here is that we should ignore the evidence that Lincoln did deliberately and with malice aforethought trigger a civil war that killed 750,000 people and destroyed billions of dollars worth of land, property and wealth because you think the outcome achieved was a good result.
Well I have a couple of issues with this approach, not the least of which is the damage caused to the inherent right of independence. Now most of the population do not believe that people can have self determination unless they have the power to fight and win a war with the larger part of the nation. The original consensual pact has become a Mafioso style coerced "family" which you can't leave.
As it was, instead of waiting for the surrender and evacuation of Fort Sumter due to lack of supplies on April 15 as promised by its Union commander, the Confederates fired on it on April 12 and began the Civil War.
Of course they did. Lincoln's *PUBLIC* orders were that when the flotilla was complete with all ships present, the Union Forces would attack and attempt to reinforce the fortress by force. No one knew about his secret order preventing their main battleship from showing up at the appointed time and place.
People expected that when the Powhatan arrived, the ships would began firing on the Confederate forces than surrounding the fort, and a man would have to be a d@mn fool to know that an attack is coming and be expected to just stand there and wait to be caught between the guns of the Fort and the guns of Naval Warships.
If the Confederates had waited for the Union Navy to arrive in force, the battle might also have included exchanges of fire between Confederate land artillery and Union vessels attempting to supply Fort Sumter. Yet, by Confederate choice, that is not what happened.
Yes they did. They believed the *PUBLIC* orders that Lincoln's navy had issued. They already knew the ships were ordered to attack them, and silly them, they thought that perhaps it would be best to not face both the Fortress guns and the Ship guns at the same time.
Lincoln had already taken a swing at them when he issued those orders. No one expected him to pull back his punch at the last moment. Lincoln was a clever fellow, wasn't he?